Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Me, I don't think it's a good principle. It's certainly not a progressive one. But it seems to be the favored one of Clinton's defenders - or John Edwards' attackers, at least.

As for Clinton herself, I'll quote Trippi:

If you want to know why we need change in Washington – and I mean real change, not just trading corporate Republican insiders with corporate Democratic insiders – then just look at Senator Clinton's schedule for today.

Today at noon, Hillary Clinton will be hosting a fundraiser in Washington, DC for a select group of lobbyists with an interest in homeland security.

Tickets for the Clinton fundraiser are $1,000 a ticket and $25,000 per bundler. And for that money you get more than a meal – you get to attend one-hour breakout sessions in four different areas of homeland security that will include House Committee Chairs and members of Congress who sit on the very committees that will be voting on homeland security legislation.

The American people know that the system in Washington has become corroded and corrupt – that the nation's capital is awash in campaign money from lobbyists seeking to gain influence to impact legislation.

The more I think about it, the more I hate it. These lobbyists, the lobbyists who can afford "$1,000 a ticket and $25,000 per bundler," the lobbyists who represent the wealthy few, the lobbyists who demand more government money for the very rich, are the same as the part-time lobbyist hired by Georgia Equality to represent hundreds of thousands of gay Georgians before the state legislature, to beg for fundamental rights?

The comparison is so outrageous that to call it false would be an understatement. To call it bullshit would be insufficient. Really, it demands words so strong, they have yet to be coined.

But back to Clinton. The word for her is brazen. Other than her most dedicated and double-joined defenders, no one agrees with her support for this corrupt system. It's even less popular in the primary. Yet she continues to embrace these lobbyists.

If she's this chummy now, how chummy will she be if the primary is over, if the general is over, and if she is president? Now is when she is most beholden to Democratic voters, and she does this. If she becomes president, she will only be worse.

It's like I've said. If you like this system, where if you want to have a say, you have to hire a lobbyist, then you should vote Hillary: she and her supporters will do their best to ensure it continues. Even now, you can see their dedication to this system in their tortured defenses of it.

But if you don't like that system, if you don't want to hire a lobbyist, if you can't afford to hire a lobbyist, if you think that your president should be your advocate, then vote against Hillary, and vote for another candidate, one who will represent you.